Tag: Teachta Dála

Scribbling in the Margins , Fianna Fáil Arts Policy.

December 8th, 2010
Ireland has fallen in the Press Freedom League due to the addition of an amendment to the 2006-2009 defamation legislation( enacted on January the First 2010). This fact is mostly unsurprising , except maybe to the Irish media who chose not to highlight the international dialogues on the dangers of defamation censorship, but to attack the group who launched a campaign to highlight these very dangers.

We in Ireland are approaching the first anniversary of that censorship which was launched by an Irish justice Minister , Dermot Ahern, under the advisement of the Irish Attorney General (on January the First 2011).

The fact that the Bill was shoved through under what we politely term guillotined debate and with majority vote was practically ignored by our press, who awaited until a global conversation had occurred and only highlighted the issue 24 hours after the amendment was implemented !

There is of course historical precedent in the Fianna Fáil party for ill-judged censorship which attacks the development of free-speech, and in its turn the Arts and the cultural development of our country. I have highlighted this throughout 2010 in a number of Poethead posts , which I am excerpting and linking here. It is my belief that this is part and parcel of the history of the Fianna Fáil party which sidelined, censored and under-funded the Arts in a manner which led to and will continue to lead to an intellectual diaspora from Ireland. Excerpt for The Old King : The Criminalisation for Blasphemy remains on the Irish Statute.

The development of the Arts in Ireland has since 2003 , under the O Donoghue Arts Act , been atrophied by the concerns of ministers more interested in sports and who appoint our Arts Council. The all-embracing silence of artists and thinkers on the criminalisation of blasphemy being a pointer to an inability to discuss anything outside of very narrow two-dimensional concerns of output and finance , which isn’t really about the realm of ideas and the intellect at all.”

The 2003 O Donoghue Arts Act and the Relation of the Irish Government to the Arts Council.

I have alluded to the Arts Act 2003 which has been covered competently enough in the Press and which brings Government very close to deciding what constitutes Irish art, this Act is a carbon-copy of De Valera policies which led to the Rouault Controversy, the foundation of outsider arts groups and the evolution of an official Irish arts which owed everything to an ideology of mirroring governmental concerns in the development of the State but starved a generation of intellectual food.

There are currently numerous rows in Ireland regarding funding, I reckon the intercine squabbling amongst those who want the crumbs off the table is wholly undignified and that we should be looking at remedies such as the Repeal of the 2003 Arts Act, the independence from Government of Arts Council Appointments, and the relation of the Arts Council to the Revenue Commission ( who seek Govt. advisement on the endowment of tax exemptions) .

I do not believe that the Fianna Fáil Party are nurturing the root of Press-freedom or intellectual and cultural development through policies that have managed to starve arts and cultural institutes of their needed revenues, that have left the regions bereft of decent cultural centres and that have failed to identify the problems in their 13 years of policy which is showing itself as an abject failure on a cultural scale.

Poethead Links and Irish Imprints , reacting to savage Fianna Fáil and Green Cutbacks in Arts.

I aways think that European cultures know the value of their poetic and literary traditions more so than us Irish, but I am optimistically waiting to be proven wrong. I include herein some of the Independent Press names , which will evolve and be added to and indeed I have added also some online writers who I and many others enjoy.
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The Old King; a criminalisation for blasphemy remains on the Irish statute.

August 1st, 2010
The Old King, a Criminalisation for Blasphemy remains on the Irish Statute.

The image of the Old King is by french expressionist/fauvist painter Georges Rouault who was accused by the predecessors of this Irish Government of both blasphemy and incompetence. His paintings, mainly of religious themes, were refused exhibition in Dublin. A spirited defence of Rouault was undertaken by Louis Le Brocquy in which he accused Fianna Fáil of chocolate-box sentimentalism in their refusal to appreciate art. I believe it is worse than that.

The development of the Arts in Ireland has since 2003 (the O Donoghue Arts Act) been atrophied by the concerns of ministers more interested in sports and who appoint our Arts Council. The all-embracing silence of artists and thinkers on the criminalisation of blasphemy being a pointer to an inability to discuss anything outside of very narrow two-dimensional concerns of output and finance, which isn’t really about the realm of ideas and the intellect at all. It presents a paucity to our future generations in terms of leadership and discussion. We are not making art to reflect our ideas or for our children, we are making it to echo the narrow and constipated concerns of Government !

There were to be two referendums in October 2010. I have commented elsewhere on the postponing of the Children’s Rights Referendum which was to occur on the same day as the blasphemy referendum. It seems that alone in the developed world, we in Ireland have now got an entirely superfluous blasphemy amendment (2006-2009 Defamation Legislation) which will for the forseeable future remain on our statute. Last week Barry Andrews TD confirmed another Referendum postponement, until 2011. (Edit: second anniversary of this innovation occurs Jan 2012 – no sign of the promised referendum)

This criminalisation for blasphemic utterance is based not in the definition of blasphemy but in the offender’s ability to generate outrage! As the Roualt controversy showed, it is quite easy for outrage to be generated in Ireland and that the Arts are indeed subject to the manipulations of governments whose inability to lead is propped by unnecessary legislation in order that debate does not occur. Debate generates ideas and discussions which create fear and are thus anathema to would-be leaders.

I have on my studio wall a wonderful early reproduction of the Old King, which stops people in their tracks because the observer can actually see the brush-strokes. I put it there in it’s simple wooden and glass frame as a reminder of the folly of the Rouault controversy and how simple it is to fall into a laughing-stock by virtue of personal vanity.

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